Leaks or other unusual events that cause extraordinary flow volumes in piping systems unnecessarily cost residential and commercial property owners money. In addition, leaking water can cause large amounts of damage to a home or commercial space. Water is typically expensive; high utility bills may result from excess or wasted usage. In addition, the growing scarcity of potable water motivates reducing or eliminating waste.
Water damage resulting from leaks can cost property owners or insurance companies additional expense. A detector that monitors fluid flow volume and alerts owners, authorities, insurance companies, or a central station when unusual volume is detected may reduce overall utility usage, as well as unnecessary damage and expenses caused by water leaks. Additionally, a small, easily installable, easily operable detector will encourage and facilitate use by property owners.
Many current flow meters that measure flow by automatically reading meters are bulky, are designed for technician use only, and do not alert owners to unusual flow volumes. Rather, they merely report actual consumption. Utility meters are often located inaccessibly. For this reason, and to reduce field personnel, utility companies, for instance, find advantage in automatically reading meters electronically, and transmitting the reading, such as by radio waves.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,042,368, issued May 9, 2006 to Patterson et al., discloses an automated meter reader to report utility consumption. A device and method of use are described having an optical transceiver that emits light toward a meter face, an optical receiver that accepts light reflected off the meter face, and an amplifier and gain control as part of a signal processing circuit. Patterson et al. do not disclose any means to continuously monitor for unusual flow rates. The meter reader is also obtrusive, blocking ordinary visual inspection of the meter during use. The detector is not designed for property owner use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,587, issued May 25, 1993 to Green, also discloses a device for monitoring utility usage. A meter sensor assembly is attached to a meter and a user interface unit with LCD display processes the sensor signal into useful data. This device is less bulky and obtrusive than that of Patterson et al., but it is built to read only meters with rotating discs. Again, it reports consumption, but does not automatically alert a user or other party to unusual usage volumes.
Presently available flow detectors that do alert owners to unusual flow volumes are invasive to the meters and piping systems, bulky, and unwieldy for typical owners to install and operate. Whereas automatic meter readers are somewhat non-invasive, leak detectors typically use invasive means such as valve or pipe add-ons. Other detectors use non-centralized systems that do not detect flow starting at the meter where the piping system begins.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,051, issued Nov. 13, 2001 to Cohen, discloses an invasive flow monitoring device mounted in series with a water pipe, a controller, logic components, and a shut-off valve to shut off water flow when a predetermined condition is met. No meter is read, and actual modifications to existing piping systems must be made.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,329, issued Jul. 20, 1993 to Dennison, discloses a leak detector that uses a series of thermal fluid flow sensors. These sensors detect leaks indirectly by comparing variations in pipe temperatures caused by variations in flow rate. When leaks are detected, a chime and light emitting diode are activated.
It would be advantageous to provide a centralized flow detector to detect flow rates from the beginning throughout an entire piping system.
It would also be advantageous to provide a fluid flow detector that continuously monitors the dials on a meter for unusual flow volume.
It would further be advantageous to provide an easily installable, easily operable fluid flow detector to facilitate use by a property owner.
It would also be advantageous to provide a fluid flow detector with a sensor assembly mechanically adjustable in three planes.
It would further be advantageous to provide a fluid flow detector capable of alerting property owners, authorities, insurance companies, or central stations of unusual fluid flow rates.
It would also be advantageous to provide a non-invasive fluid flow detector that requires modification to neither existing piping systems nor existing meters.